Loyalty
by StarfireFowl
Summary: Sirius has other plans for the Marauders after Hogwarts ends. RemusSirius.


A/N: A Remus/Sirius fic written for a fic exchange over at livejournal back during December. Has nothing to do with the holidays though.

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Let's go camping." Our first minute out of Hogwarts and that's the first thing Sirius says. It could have been worse. His scheme last year was to try and fit in with the muggles, which somehow led to Peter parading around dressed as a woman. I, at least' wasn't involved in that after I had a word with Sirius about what time of the month it was. That got me out of almost anything. Except this year. This year, the full moon had already come and gone.

"What?" James and I croaked in unison. Peter paled, his terrified eyes saying what his mouth couldn't.

"Camping! Like the muggles do when they want to go sleep in the wilderness!" Sirius grinned, his eyes sparkling.

"Sirius, it's June. It's hot. It'd be fairly ridiculous to even try." I could feel my face displaying my worry. Sirius wasn't thinking things through yet again. We had no materials, no spare clothes, no food. Peter was still a growing boy. He needed his frequent meals.

"Oh, but Moony! When have we ever not been ridiculous?" His gray eyes were pleading with mine and I found it hard to resist his charm. I could understand why so many girls could not say no to him.

"What are we going to sleep in? I don't have a sleeping bed ever since the 'Capture Mrs. Norris' incident." James brought up a good point. Whatever means we had for sleeping were residing in the Room of Requirement from one of Sirius's unsuccessful pranks, completely destroyed.

"That's where you're wrong, boys. What can't a _reparo_ fix?" Sirius was grinning again as he pulled out four tiny sleeping bags which could be enlarged on command. From behind him, he pulled out an enormous duffel bag and tossed it to Peter. The pudgy boy grimaced.

"What is it?" Peter squeaked.

"Food, you dummy." Sirius leaned back into his train seat, smiling at me. He had Peter hooked now and judging by James's face as he felt the sleeping bag's super soft material, I was the only vote left. A smile was the one thing that could easily sway me.

"Fine." I half-smiled back at my closest friend. A sigh of fake frustration left my lips. "You really thought this out, didn't you?"

"Yup! Ever since before exams!" Sirius answered. It was at that point that the compartment door snapped open and Lily Evans entered. James got one look at her and he became a whole different person. The abandonment in Sirius's eyes was visible, but I couldn't tell if it was jealousy or sadness.

"James, I found us an empty cart a few down." Lily smiled, her red hair tied back so as not to move in the summer breeze pouring through our windows. She had been the one to give me my first kiss back in third year, but I got over her the second James said he was mad. Our friendship meant more than any girl.

"I'll see you later." James winked, dashing out of the compartment with Lily. Well, our friendship meant more to me at least. Lily was everything that the Marauders couldn't be for James.

"I oughta go too." Peter said softly, standing up. "Natalie was saying something about meeting up on the train." Natalie. Peter's first and only girlfriend. She wasn't exactly pretty and she was only a Hufflepuff sixth year, but she kept Peter in line. And knew absolutely nothing about the previous summer. We made a habit of blackmailing him with that. Peter left Sirius and me, Sirius suddenly looking deeply wounded. It shouldn't have surprised me, yet the deep, sad look in his eyes made me feel bad too.

"Hey, Moony?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me you won't ditch me for some girl like those freaks." His gray eyes were locked in on mine, the sadness in them breaking me in half. With a look like that, I could never leave him.

"I won't. Don't worry." I smiled, leaning back in my own seat. "So why camping?"

Sirius closed his eyes, inhaling sharply. "I'll tell you later. For now, let me sleep." He grinned with his eyes shut, sleep overcoming him after a few silent minutes. His mind was a wonder to me.

Z

"Sirius, you have issues," James growled, following the Marauders into the woods. We had left the train only a few minutes earlier, James and Peter explaining to their parents that they were going to be gone one more day. James' parents had laughed and ruffled his hair, knowing this was one of Sirius's tricks he was getting dragged into. Peter's parents needed a little convincing first.

"But Prongsie! We're going camping in the wilderness! We're going to survive a night with wild animals!" Sirius smiled gleefully. He looked like he would be skipping around had he not been lugging Peter's food backpack around.

"But we do that every full moon," I added.

"Did you just make a joke about your wolfiness? Remus, you're getting better!" Sirius grinned, laughing at me. I was getting better? My sanity sure wasn't.

"I did not leave Lily alone with her family to go sleep in the wild." James groaned, marching right behind me.

"We're here." Sirius stopped dead in his tracks, dropping his bag on the ground. Peter looked around while James continued to rant about how he could have been having fun with Lily. I was still debating why Sirius would choose our camping spot to be in the midst of trees. Usually, people camped in clearings.

"Sirius?" I asked, eyeing him as he began to set up the tents. "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Not really. I probably should have asked you about this beforehand, seeing as you know the most about muggles. There aren't any spells for this, are there?" Sirius gave me that hopeless grin.

"No." I answered, shaking my head.

"You don't know what you're doing, Padfoot? What? Then why are we even here?" James yelled.

"We'll have fun though, won't we, Prongsie?"

Z

Within an hour, our camp was successfully set up by Peter and me while James pulverized Sirius in a very muggle-style fist-fight. The sun had gone down by that time, seeing as how we only got off the train at six and entered the woods at seven. Sirius and his black eye were illuminated by a fire's glow. James, when he was done pummeling Sirius, had built it.

"So should we sing campfire songs and eat marshmallows? Or should we just throw James into the fire?" Sirius's smile jumped in the course of a sentence as he glared at James. I had to laugh at them. They were as hopeless as two rivals during a test.

"No. I will not start singing. I'm going to sleep." James growled, sulking off into one of the four tents.

"Wormtail, Moony, you'll sing, wont' you?" Sirius's gray eyes were huge, pleading with both Peter and me. I wasn't going to sing, but there was something about that face I couldn't turn down.

"S..sorry, Sirius. I promised Natalie I would owl her the first chance I got. And I'm feeling awfully tired." Peter had bailed on me. Now I understood why Sirius hated his friends having girlfriends. They ditched you for them.

Sirius sat on the side of the fire that was closest to the woods, ready to transform if anything came near us that was particularly dangerous. I sat opposite on the other side of the fire, relaxing for the first time in a while. Sirius's eyes were still on the fire, just staring at the dancing flames in the darkness. His eyes had never looked so gray before.

"It's just you and me again, Moony. Will you sing with me?" Sirius asked, beginning to hum to himself. I began to hum along with him to the same tune, a popular song that I had played for him a while before. Sirius began to smile again, the fire lighting up his face. He cut himself just short of the chorus, stopping to leave my voice floating around us.

"Was this stupid, Moony?" Sirius questioned, his smiled fading.

"A little."

"You can go off too if you want. I'll watch the fire." Sirius sighed, nodding in the tent's general direction.

"Wake me up when you start to get tired," I said softly. I walked over to my tent, taking one last glance at Sirius's handsome figure by the fire.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't fall asleep. Not with that sad look on Sirius's face in my mind. I could hear James' soft snores and Peter's louder ones to each side of me. How had I fallen asleep to these noises everyday for seven years? Admitting defeat, I left my tent. Sirius was where I had left him by the fire, staring into it again.

"Can't sleep?" He spoke without looking up.

"Yup." I took a seat on the ground beside him.

"Afraid of the big, bad forest creatures?" He smirked, his eyes meeting mine.

"Just the wolves." I smiled back at him. Sirius was finally laughing again.

"Two jokes in a day. You _are _improving, Moony!" His eyes darted to the fire as it crackled loudly. My eyes followed, along with the sad silence I thought I had gotten rid of.

The silence began to get to me, so I finally asked him the question that had been on my mind. "Sirius?"

"Mh?" He was looking at me again.

"Why did you want to go camping in the first place? You said you'd tell me later." Sirius looked away, his eyes unfocused. He waited a few seconds before answering me.

"I didn't want the Marauders to end just yet. Hogwarts was the best experience of my life. And as of tomorrow morning, it's over." I'd never seen Sirius this down before. He was always the one cheering everyone else up when they were down. I didn't really know how to react besides pulling off the same thing he had done.

"You know, Padfoot, muggles throw parties when they graduate. Not go camping." Sirius turned to look at me.

"I know. I just enjoy seeing you in the firelight." The smirk returned to my face. It took me a minute to get what he was saying. Was he saying that I looked good? There was no way I could compare to him anyway. Him in the firelight was hauntingly beautiful.

I felt Sirius's arm slip around my shoulder, pulling me so my head could lean on his own shoulder. We both were smiling, me with the satisfaction of knowing I cheered him up. He was smiling for an entirely different reason.

"I told you I wouldn't ditch you too, Sirius," I told him. He leaned down and pressed his nose to my hair.

"I know. You're the only loyal one anymore." His voice was slightly muffled, but every word rang crystal clear in my head. I'd always been his most loyal friend, but my feelings told a completely different story in which I was madly in love with him. His last action made me wonder if this wasn't a completely one-sided attraction.

"We're most loyal to those that we love." Sirius was the one to have wide eyes now.

"Do you mean it, Moony?"

"Of course." His hand found its way to my chin, tilting my lips to find his. Our tongues collided almost instantly. I pulled myself up to his height before letting my hands run across his body. His hands were found in my hair and around my neck.

We kept kissing, no less, no more. My hands were under his shirt a few times, but that never lasted. there was always a new spot on Sirius's body I had yet to explore. We pulled away at the exact same moment, both panting deeply.

"Go to bed, Sirius." I muttered, my arms still around him. Sirius was looking at me with the warm eyes again. A pout had curled onto his over-kissed lips.

"I don't want to, Moony."

"I told you I'd trade with you when you got tired."

"I'm not tired!"

"Yes, you are. Sleep, Sirius." I smiled at him, kissing his lips tenderly before he stood up. "Goodnight."

"'Night, Moony." He walked away, my eyes in the campfire that Sirius had been staring into all night. After that night, James and Peter began their new lives, but Sirius's and mine revolved around each other. At least I knew where my loyalties laid.

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A/N 2: Reviews would be lovely... constructive criticsm would be even better. 


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